Wilde & the Wallpaper

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Oscar Wilde died on this day in 1900, in the nick of time: "If another century began and I was still alive, it would really be more than the English could stand." During his three-and-a-half years after prison, the only writing Wilde completed was The Ballad of Reading Gaol, this finished within a few months of his release. There were many other projects - one was for "The Ballad of the Fisher-Boy," a celebratory counterstatement to Reading Gaol, based on his recent enjoyment of "fisher-lads, who draw great nets, and are bare-limbed" - but few ideas got beyond the talking stage. And though Wilde maintained his ability to turn a phrase as he roamed Europe over these last years, looking for companionship or handouts, most of his comments are darkly shaded:

• On visiting his wife's grave in Genoa, where the marker made no reference to her having had a husband: "I was deeply affected - with a sense, also, of the uselessness of all regrets. Nothing could have been otherwise, and Life is a very terrible thing."

• On life in a small Italian town: "In Paris I am bad; here I am bored: the last state is the worst."

• To an old friend who, in an elaborately-phrased excuse, refused Wilde's request for funds: "In so light a matter, my dear Fullerton, sentiment need not borrow stilts."

• About his only remaining relationship options: "The Cloister or the Café - there is my future. I tried the Hearth, but it was a failure."

Richard Ellmann's biography, source for the above, says some version of Wilde's legendary last words - "My wallpaper and I are fighting a duel to the death; one or the other of us has to go" - were actually uttered a month before his death, after coming in from what would be a last night out.

Another famous Dubliner is tied to this day - Jonathan Swift, born there in 1667. The exact location seems pregnant with significance: a few blocks this way was St. Patrick's Cathedral, where Swift would be Dean; much closer that way, almost his backyard, was Dublin Castle, representing the Englishness he would both covet and skewer; the specific address, his uncle's home at 7 Hoey's Court, almost perfect for perhaps the most famous scoffer in literature.

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Daybook is contributed by Steve King, who teaches in the English Department of Memorial University in St. John's, Newfoundland. His literary daybook began as a radio series syndicated nationally in Canada. He can be found online at todayinliterature.com.